


My Tin Foil Hat Worth Soulmate

by under_that_sun



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Getting Together, M/M, No Voldemort here, mostly - Freeform, tom is sane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-09-24 02:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9696122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/under_that_sun/pseuds/under_that_sun
Summary: Snapshots from Harry's life, important events and conversation that lead him and his soulmate to travel the world in a search of ancient spell or a spaceship, Harry wasn't really sure what they're looking for. He only knew he had a handsome weirdo for a soulmate.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Littwink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littwink/gifts).



> This is my story gift for tomarrytine. Gift to @littwink at tumblr (tell me if your AO3 is also Littwink, I will properly gift you this fic then).  
> I made this story a soulmate au because I find those adorable, I don't know who originally created this soulmate concept, but if someone knows tell me and I will credit them for inspiring me.
> 
> A little about the soulmate concept in this fic:  
> \- everything written/smudged/drawn that sinks into the skin gets transferred onto your soulmate's skin, exact same place;  
> \- you can only wash off what you have written, you can't wipe away what your soulmate does;
> 
> One more thing - Everything written in 'apostrophes' is a talk between soulmates.

A quill in hand of a young boy, aged six, is sitting by a window, an open ink bottle next to him, black ink swirling inside it from when the calm substance was disturbed by the dipping of a quill. Bright green eyes stare into the white skin of forehand, unsure if his letter knowledge is enough to write anything down.

Small chest moves up and down as Harry takes a deep breath and lets the quill touch his skin. In careful movements he spells out a word, the letters are a bit crooked, not in cursive like how his mum writes, but capitals. Harry holds a breath as pulls the quill away from his skin and stares into it with anticipation.

Seconds pass, green eyes stare at a non-changing view. A crooked ‘ **HELLO** ’ stares back at him, the letters seem to mock him, Harry’s lip quivers, tears fill his eyes, he gets this urge to rub ink off the skin, just leave it as a dark smudge. Like those smudges that he gets from time to time.

Instead the young boy rubs his eyes, wills the tears away, he’s not some kind of baby to cry like this. His soulmate probably hasn’t noticed the message from him yet, he just needs to be patient and wait.

Pushing the open bottle aside Harry sits down on the windowsill and gazes to the snow filled garden outside. His eyes follow a sparrow that jumps from branch to branch, eyes wandering off to his exposed forearm every second or so. He tries to tame down the disappointment as every time he looks nothing has changed, no new dots have appeared…

In the end Harry gives up. Maybe they’re busy? He decides, closes the ink bottle, cleans the quill, gazes outside one more time, lets his eyes drop to the marked skin, sighs. Small nimble finger roll down robe sleeve and the alcove is left with impression of bad memories inside it.

Unknown to Harry, halfway across the country a hand with a quill in hand is shaking as wide eyes stare into the black words on the forearm of his hand. They try to put the quill onto the skin, to answer, to show the message has been received, but the writing utensil just slips out of fingers and falls down onto the desk with a soft thud.

Eyes close, a forearm is pressed to forehead, a deep exhale. “They wrote back…”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Baby Harry is born with an interesting ‘x’ shaped mark on the outside of his palm.

The healers write it down as a beauty-mark that might disappear, so happy parents Lily and James don’t really mind it, it’s not like they even see their son’s hands that often as the new-born is kept wrapped up in many layers.

Sometime later they notice the mark gone and pay no mind to it, Harry is still a baby, even his eyes are not a set colour yet, they look light brow, but who knows how will they change! Harry makes a noise and Lily’s thoughts are interrupted, she smiles at her baby and forgets all about the matter of a disappeared mark.

The next time the redhead woman notices something is when she’s giving Harry a bath. Seeing the smooth baby skin and the black mark that she had thought to have disappeared was strange. The mark didn’t wash off nor did it seem to be in the same place as before, Lily decided to have that spot of skin under observation.

And true to it the mark would appear and disappear on random intervals and not in exact same spot. Some days it would be there, some days it wouldn’t. It didn’t take long for Lily to figure out it was Harry’s soulmate marking their skin.

It was a bit weird that they did nothing else, but put on a cross, but obviously they were older, but not old enough to do anything else. Redhead looked down onto her hands, where a few messages from her husband could be seen, she remembered how surprised she was while growing up to see drawings on her hands that she did not draw.

That was the beginning of her conversations with her soulmate, it was actually how most people she knew started it too, so it was quite weird to see a simple ‘x’ instead of some kind of drawing. Maybe they just weren’t artistic?

Once she had shared this observation with her husband James had frowned thoughtfully. “You know, this could be not the child drawing, but their parents. I know some pureblood traditionalists write on their small children’s hands to check if they have a soulmate, of course, it doesn’t always work as the soulmate can be too young to understand what’s happening.”

Green eyes land on a toddler, who was moving his arms around, the dark mark clear to see to the world. “So this could be just some parents trying to interfere? Should we write something back? Maybe something as simple as a circle next to the ‘x’?”

James shakes his head. “No, I think we shouldn’t be interrupting their interactions, let it flow naturally, wherever it’s the soulmate or their parents they will stop eventually and once Harry’s old enough he will decide himself how he will make himself known.”

Lily frowned. “Are you sure? What if somewhere a poor child is thinking they don’t have a soulmate because their other half never answers them? What if I had never answered you?”

The raven headed man grimaces. “I thought you were supporting independence and that people can love without being soulmates? That kid should be less desperate.”

A tender hand brushes Harry’s darkening locks away from his forehead, Lily sighs. “Maybe you’re right, I just want our son to be happy and there’s more chances for that with soulmates.”

“While that’s true I don’t think they need that as children.”

“Yea, you’re right.” She picks up her toddler and coos at him. “Let’s go little one, it’s time for you to eat.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry looked over the castle marvelling at its towers, comparing the view before his eyes with stories he’s heard from his soulmate.

He follows in the stern woman inside the castle, the room he’s in is exactly how it had been described, no changes had happened to it in the last several years apparently. Harry hears some students whispering about possible ways of how the sorting will go and snickers to himself.

He wonders if he would believe those outrageous theories too if he hadn’t begged his soulmate to tell him about it. He probably lucked out not to have older siblings who try to fool him; Harry thinks as he glances at the red head who’s almost shouting in excitement as he’s retelling his brother’s story.

Looking around he could see some children who smirked at the freckled boy’s story just like him, at least he wasn’t the only one informed. While his parents and other adults in his life refused to part with any information about Hogwarts, except how awesome it is, Harry’s soulmate was easily talked into sharing. (For a moment Harry wonders if it would have been even quicker if he could have looked them into eyes with that particular expression his mother called Dangerous Puppy EyesTM).

He had to wonder if that was because his soulmate was easy to talk into things, or was it because Harry was special to them.

A big double door opened and a stern woman appeared in the doorway. Her face was set in a stern expression and Harry wasn’t sure what to think of her, she was kind of scary, but that didn’t mean the rest of the professors weren’t either.

They followed after her into a humongous room and Harry missed entirely of what happened then as he looked around the hall with wonder. This was brilliant! He will eat here every day! How wicked was that?

Once he heard names being shouted Harry had to make his eyes focus on the stool and a ratty hat in the middle of the room. Harry watched as one by one children walked up to the woman whose name Harry had already forgotten.

To be truthful he was quite nervous, he had no idea in which house he will end up and will have to spend next seven years of his life. But at the same time he couldn’t wait to see how it will go, couldn’t wait to meet his new housemates, his dorm mates and other children in general.

Harry knew some children, mostly from family friends, some he had seen in Diagon Alley often enough to recognise them. But he wanted something new and was excited to experience it in Hogwarts.

The sorting didn’t go on for too long and before Harry was sitting on the stool, a ratty hat on his head and a voice in his head.

“Oh, a half and half, really kid, I can’t decide – Slytherin or Gryffindor. It’s quite a controversy, so I’m going let you choose, where do you want to go?”

The raven headed boy sat there confused. He gets to choose? He didn’t want to choose! This was supposed to be an adventure that started out with him getting into a house, not before he got into one!

Harry hears a faint chuckle. “Gryffindor!” Echoes through the Great Hall.

The eleven year old hops off the stool as the hat is taken off his head and heads to the table clad in red ties. He sighs in relief, the hat chose for him in the end, he didn’t really care that he went to Gryffindor, he does have a couple of very cool uncles from Slytherin too.

He sits down among other first years and glances up at the teacher’s table and smiles as his mother waves at him. She said she didn’t care where he got in, but she probably was proud he’s in Gryffindor.

The Headmaster stood up and Harry ignored whatever he was going to say and took out a muggle pen. It was something his soulmate had suggested to use so Harry could write to them without having to haul ink and a quill, which he had gotten tired of asking his parents to charm so it wouldn’t break.

‘I’ve gotten into Gryffindor!’ He writes.

‘ _Oh? Were you hoping for it?_ ’ His soulmate asks.

‘It didn’t matter to me, I just wanted to be sorted and the hat was hesitating between Slytherin and Gryffindor.’

‘ _How interesting, these two houses are usually considered polar opposites._ ’

‘I didn’t care for which I’d be sorted, I just didn’t want to choose myself, because it wouldn’t have been interesting.’

‘ _Well? Is it interesting then?_ ’

Harry looks around and understands he’s been ignoring his housemates he had wanted to meet so much. ‘Ugh, I don’t know, I wanted to talk to you first, but I’m going to go interact now.’

‘ _Talk to you later._ ’ His soulmate writes and Harry rolls his sleeve down.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry sits in front of his mother, reading Beedle the Bard. She was grading some papers, her calm eyes were focused on her table, red loose hair fell from her shoulders as she was leaning down.

Green eyes kept deflecting from the fairy tale book to his covered wrist. He hadn’t looked at the skin since he came here, but he really wanted to, but if his soulmate hadn’t written back yet Harry was sure he will cry – that wasn’t something he wanted to do in front of his mother.

“So Harry, is there a reason you keep glancing at your wrist?”

Said boy looks up startled at his mother and blinks owlishly. “Umm, I might have written to my soulmate?”

“Oh,” Lily leans down in her chair. “What have they written back then?”

Harry feels his facial features form an unhappy expression. “Nothing when I last checked.”

“Well, then you should just look again then, maybe they’ve written back since then.” The woman replies raising an eyebrow at her son. To be truthful she was interested to know how her son’s first interaction went.

She observes as her son bites his lip, eyes once again falling onto his clothed wrist. “I’m afraid that it’s going to be empty again.”

Lily smiles. “Have you tried looking at your other wrist? Maybe they’re left handed?”

The red headed woman watches with amusement as eyes in a similar shade to hers, fall onto a lean left hand and almost tears off sleeve but shoulders slump as he sees an empty wrist. She observes as Harry’s eyes fall on his right wrist and much more carefully than before he reveals his wrist and his eyes widen.

From her spot the worried mother can’t really see the words written on the skin, but she can easily guess what happened. “They wrote back, didn’t they?” Harry nods, finger pads brushing through the black ink on his skin. “You should probably go back to your room and try having a conversation with them, if you need any help I will be here.”

The black haired boy nods and quickly scurries out of the room. No son wants to cry in relief before their mother; Lily muses as she takes a quill with a smile, but instead of resuming her work she writes down on her wrist.

‘You won’t believe what Harry did today.’

Hopefully James will have a couple of minutes away from his auror work to write her back…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When Harry gets used to the rhythm of Hogwarts, he falls into a routine with his dorm mates and has people he can call friends. One evening, when sitting in the library after finishing all homework he stares at his forearm, gnawing his lips, unsure what to do.

Hermione was reading a book in a seat in front of his, they were the only ones from their year who came to do their homework on Friday evening so they could have the weekend free of stress.

The green eyed male was sure his friend was too lost in the book to notice Harry had finished his work, so he was free to write to his soulmate without her curious eyes boring into his skull. The young Gryffindor found other people watching him as he talked with his soulmate very disturbing and tended to avoid people in the daily talks with his soulmate.

Knowing he won’t get anywhere with just staring Harry takes a quill and dips it into ink. Now or never.

He sets the quill on his skin and writes.

‘So, I know you’re older than me and that you’re in Hogwarts, but what year are you?’

Harry was sure his cheeks were flaming. While he knew the person on the other end was someone who perfectly resonated with his soul things that revealed one’s identity were quite sacred and usually soulmates exchanged deep personal information such as their names only after forging deep bond.

But the first year was curious, have he passed his soulmate in the halls? Have they sat in the same hall having a meal? He didn’t need to know their name or even gender yet, but he wanted to know _something_.

‘ _Not eve a greeting, where are your manners?_ ’

The raven haired boy blushes at being scolded. ‘Sorry, it’s just that I’ve been thinking about it for so long I couldn’t hold in the question anymore. Hello, how was your day?’

‘ _Hello, it has been informative to say the least. To answer your question,_ ’ Harry holds his breath as he waits for the words to appear again, his soulmate probably needed to dip their quill again. ‘ _I am no longer in Hogwarts as I finished it just this year._ ’

The excitement form Harry’s face falls. He had known his soulmate was older, but, by seven years? They just missed each other in here? That sucked. ‘Oh, wow, so you’re an adult already?’

 _‘Oh, don’t feel bad or anything of such kind, I’m not bothered by you being much younger, I will just have to wait until you grow up properly._ ’ Harry stares into the words, not sure how he should answer them. ‘ _Unless of course, you’d prefer we were platonic, in that case we could meet whenever, I could mentor you even._ ’

The young boy’s chest tightens and he grips the quill harder. ‘I’d like you to be someone I could love, I can always find friends, I have plenty of people who can offer me guidance, I’d like you to be someone I don’t have. And I really don’t know how it will go when we meet, but let’s postpone our meeting until I’m old enough to decide?’

‘ _Alright, as you wish, how about we speak about this once you go to your 5 th or 6th year of Hogwarts?_’

‘Okay, I agree.’

Harry exhales loudly and closes his eyes. Another four or five years until he even decides how he should meet with his soulmate, it’s gonna be okay, they will talk often and get to know each other better. It’s a perfect plan, he’s just a child in front of his soulmate anyway, he should be glad they agreed to wait for him to grow up…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

‘Don’t you just sometimes want to rip someone’s head off?’

‘ _Why yes, I do, but I believe it’s not something you should be wishing for. Who is this unlucky soul who has earned your wrath?_ ’

Sun shines right into Harry’s eyes, so he turns his back to it from his spot on a thick rock fence separating castle and its grounds. ‘Ugh, it’s just a guy from my year, he acts like he’s entitled to everything and that we all should be glad just to be in the same room as him.’

‘ _Hmm, and what makes him think that way?_ ’ Blue letters appear on Harry’s forearm.

‘He keeps boasting about his family being rich, his dad being influential in the Ministry and for having the coolest older brother or something like that.’

Harry grits his teeth as in his minds eye he sees Draco Malfoy boasting about this and that, didn’t he know people didn’t like show offs?

‘ _Ah, I see, but have you thought that maybe he thinks that if he will keep mentioning good things about himself, others will want to be friends with him?_ ’

Black eyebrows furrow. ‘But that’s a stupid thing to think.’

‘ _Well, he doesn’t know any better, besides, if he’s in Slytehrin it’s probably working very well._ ’

‘He is in Slytherin.’

‘ _Then there you go, showing others that you’re important is a way to prove your worth in Slytherin. He won’t be getting any friends like that, no, but he will have lackeys and followers to keep him company._ ’

Anger is almost non-existent in Harry’s chest as he thinks about what his soulmate just said. ‘But that sounds really sad, if his dad suddenly lost his job or something bad happened and he was no longer rich then he would be all alone.’

‘ _Yes he would._ ’ Harry’s soulmate agrees. ‘ _Do you still want to rip his head off?_ ’

‘No, I want to punch him in the face and give him a course on how not to be an asshole.’ He makes a pause thinking over his next words. ‘And maybe then be his first friend just to keep him in line.’

‘ _Then do that._ ’

‘How?’ Harry frowns as he looks up from his black and blue hand littered in words, they were running out of space to write on.

‘ _Figure this out yourself or it won’t be genuine._ ’

It feels like the conversation is over, so Harry rolls down his sleeve and slums onto the railing looking up into the spring sky. How was he going to reform Draco Malfoy?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It’s summer, it’s cold, it’s raining, Harry is bored of reading, bored of wizarding chess. He’s too lazy to go to Ron’s or Neville’s house (mainly because he knows he will get roped into helping out with something and he’s way too lazy for that) and everyone at the house is either busy or at work.

All that was left to do was bother his soulmate.

And that was exactly what Harry was doing.

‘So what did you want to be when you were in your first years at Hogwarts?’

‘ _I couldn’t really set my mind on one thing, I really enjoyed Transfiguration and Charms so it wasn’t something set, but something that I could do with both of these subjects.’_

‘So are you doing something with them now, then?’

‘ _No, once third year came around I took Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and became really fascinated with both, I am currently furthering my knowledge in Ancient Runes and Warding._ ’

‘That sound pretty cool, how exactly are you furthering your knowledge? Is there another school you can go to once you finish Hogwarts? Like university in muggle world?’

‘ _No, unfortunately there’s no such thing in Wizarding world, there are specialised schools, but nothing just to further your knowledge, I am doing personal research while also being an apprentice under a Runes Master._ ’

‘Oh, you must be really smart then, what will you do once you finish your studies?’

‘ _I don’t think I will ever finish my studies, but currently I am working to prove that the British Ministry has been trying to put wizards and witches in our country in their influence by lying to us that wands are absolutely necessary to us, while that is completely untrue.’_

“What?” Harry blinks at the litany his soulmate wrote to him. ‘What do you mean lying to us that we need wands? I feel a connection to my wand every time I cast a spell, I’ve tried to use my friend’s wand and it didn’t feel the same, the spell also didn’t work as good as usually.’

‘ _Wands work as they do, because you believe in them, you believe you need a wand to conduct your magic and while wand is a good tool for focusing in spells you could easily do most spells without it.’_

 _‘_ Like wandless magic? But isn’t it something only very powerful wizards and witches can do?’

‘ _Oh darling, that’s what Ministry made you believe in, if it was only something a rare few could do, accidental magic would not exist, muggleborns would never be found and our race would have probably died out. Did you know that in Uagadou – the magical school of Africa, students perform spell through pointing their finger or hand gestures. If a British wizard was in a fight with someone who graduated Uagadou they would lose as soon as they would get unarmed while their opponent could only be defeated by being petrified.’_

‘So I could do wandless magic?’

‘ _Yes, of course, you will need a lot of practise, especially because you’ve already started learning casting spells with a wand. But you shouldn’t have too many problems with the most basic spells.’_

 _‘_ But how do I do that? It can’t be that easy, can it?’

‘ _Of course not, but I will guide you.’_

Harry gets up from his bed, suddenly full of energy and ready to do whatever his soulmate will instruct him. ‘But wait, you said you’re working on proving that the Ministry is lying? How are you going to do that? Are you going to teach everyone how to use wandless magic?’

‘ _Ah, no, that would be crazy, not every grown wizard will be able to learn that, as well as they probably wouldn’t want to bother when they have a working wand, but it will be good for those who wanted it, but thought they never could. It also would show people that the Ministry isn’t something to be trusted fully.’_

 _‘_ Oh, wow.’ Harry wipes down his hand for probably the third time through their conversation. ‘that sounds worrying.’

‘ _Exactly, now, to start practise wandless magic you will first need to get some basic Occlumensy skills…’_

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

‘I did something stupid.’

‘ _Oh? Do tell.’_

‘I approached that guy like how you told me, it didn’t go as planned.’

‘ _Well that’s not surprising,’_ Harry scoffed at his soulmate’s words. ‘ _Rarely do plans go as you intend them to. What happened instead?_ ’

‘Well, one thing lead to another and now we’re kind of rivals and have a bet?’

‘ _Continue, this is getting more and more amusing._ ’

Harry narrows eyes at his forearm and for a moment considers not saying anything else, but in the end his hand moves the pen onto his skin. ‘So I tried telling him he should tone down the boasting and make real friends, that I think we could be great friends because we both love quidditch. He said he doesn’t need friends that are losers and stupid. Of course I got angry and said he’s no better than me. He pointed out he gets higher grades (he’s like fifth among our year, I’m like twenty fifth) than me, so obviously I was beneath him and he could only be friends with someone of equal standing.’

Harry stops writing for a moment trying to think of how to explain his next course of thought. ‘I was really angry at the time, so I said I could study just as well or even better than him, he told me to prove it and place equally or higher than him in the end of the year exams in two months. I agreed.’

A moment of silence from his soulmate followed, until words finally appeared making Harry pout. ‘ _I want you to know that I’m laughing out loud now, it’s a rare feat to make me laugh so I congratulate you on that.’_

Harry cleans his hand and considers just rolling his sleeve down and going to sleep like he said he will to his dorm mates when he closed his curtains.

‘ _To be truthful it doesn’t seem like a bad idea, proving him you’re equal to him sounds like a decent plan.’_

‘Ugh, yea, later I realized through our entire interaction he didn’t insult me because of my heritage or house affiliation how I’ve seen him do before, at first I just thought he was a bully, but now I think that’s not all he is.’

‘ _I’m so proud of you, thinking for yourself and not letting other people trick you with their public images.’_

‘I really don’t understand what you just said there, but whatever, I’m glad you’re proud, but the problem is I don’t know if I will be able to score so high in the exams.’

_‘And why ever not?’_

‘The only people above him in studies are Hermione, a couple of Rawenclaws and another classmate from Slytherin. Between him and me is like half of the Rawenclaw and couple of kids from other houses.’

‘ _You should ask for help from your friend then, the one who’s on top, you said she always nags you into going to the library with her, I’m sure she will help you to study, besides, I can give you some study tips too.’_

‘She really doesn’t like the guy I made bet with though, but she might help me nonetheless because studying is sacred to her, and I will gladly use your help, I’m gonna show him that just because I’m not on top of my studies doesn’t mean I’m stupid.’

‘ _Such a spirit, who knew that to take your future seriously all you needed was a rivalry.’_

‘Why does it feel like you’re making fun of me?’

‘ _That’s because, my darling, I was using sarcasm, you will learn the trick to it as you grow up, it is truly a very useful thing to have in your life as an adult. Some people don’t understand you’re insulting them if sarcasm is used properly.’_

 _‘_ So you were just insulting me now, then? That’s mean, is my soulmate a bully?’

 _‘Once again I want you to be aware you made me chuckle, I think you’re a good influence on me, I tend to have a really good time when talking to you.’_ Harry blushes as he reads those words, he was glad his soulmate enjoyed speaking to him, but he was still unsure about the sarcasm thing. ‘ _And no, I wasn’t insulting you, sarcasm can be used without insulting, but I was implying you were not taking your studies seriously until now.’_

‘Haha, good to know, I’m going to bed now, bye.’

_‘I will let you avoid this for now, but be prepared to start seriously studying form now on.’_

Harry lies down in his bed, eyes focusing on the hangings above his head, he had a feeling he was going to have much less free time from now on.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It’s Harry’s third year and his electives are Alchemy and Care of Magical Creatures and if that doesn’t say a lot, nothing else does.

To be truthful, those electives don’t mean that Harry was forced to choose them, but that he was strongly encouraged to choose Alchemy and then had to convince two other people so that the course would be big enough to even happen.

So there he is, in the only Alchemy group in the last fifteen years with other six students who miraculously agreed to take it. His soulmate was jealous, they said when they chose their elective they couldn’t talk enough people to form a group.

The elective while being incredibly complicated and hard was quite interesting and the only thing Harry bemoaned about it was that it took up a lot of his already very short free time. Quidditch, homework, extra reading here and there, keeping up with his studies to be on top and talking with his soulmate whenever he could made Harry’s timetable incredibly hard to manage.

The raven haired teen’s only salvation was that his rival – Draco took exactly the same electives as he did, was also his quidditch team’s seeker, so they basically had the same amount of free time, meaning if Draco could do it, he could do too, after all, he proved the blond wrong by placing 6th in their first year exams for a reason. He wasn’t going to give up now.

Even if his mother was making it extra hard as his potions professor. For some reason she had decided that treating him like any other student was showing favouritism so she would ask extra complicated questions he could not answer and then would dock points. Besides that she would also critique his potion brewing more than anyone’s else even if he was an average brewer like the bigger half of his class. She didn’t spend as much time by Neville’s cauldron who really needed extra help because he had no talent for potions and ended up failing his brewing quite often.

Draco had even suggested not to count their potions grade into the overall grade because he though Harry’s mum was way too strict on him. Harry wasn’t sure if he should be laughing or crying that even his rival thought this wasn’t fair.

Only because he was facing this academic wall did Harry told about it to his soulmate with hopes of advice.

‘What should I do if I think my potions professor is picking up on me too much?’

‘ _Do you think it’s too much or is she actually singling you out and giving you tasks that are unlike your classmates’?’_

‘She’s actually doing that and both my friends and my prat rival think so.’

_‘Oh, I never expected that, when I was under her I never saw her being unfair to anyone, but I guess things happen. Have you talked about it to her?’_

‘No, I haven’t, should I? Will it change anything at all?’

_‘Who knows, but if you talk with her and nothing changes then you can go the Deputy Headmistress as she’s your head of the house and if she doesn’t do anything go to the headmaster, bring everyone who believes your professor is being unfair and are ready to vouch for it.’_

‘Will it work?’

_‘Well, if that doesn’t work then you go to the board of governors, collect written statements from your year mates who vouched for you and give them a complaint. If nothing changes then you should probably transfer schools, got to Beauxbatons or Ilvermorny and forget Britain because this country doesn’t deserve you.’_

‘This sounds a bit too much?’

_‘Of course it’s too much, my darling, talking with your professor should be enough, just be sure to ask why she’s doing what she’s doing and explain why you feel like she’s picking on you and that others think she’s doing it too. This should be more than enough.’_

‘Oh, okay, you got me scared for a second, I don’t really want my professor sacked or to move schools.’

_‘I’m sure you don’t, now aren’t you supposed to be doing something?’_

‘Oh, yea, I need to finish my homework, bye.’

Harry sighs in relief as he leans on the library chair. His soulmate always knew what to say, even if they often over did it and suggested crazy theories. But that was part of their charm Harry guessed as he straightened and looked at the bunch of scrolls and books on his table. Time for homework and then, then he will go talk with his mother…

When the door to her office opened an hour before dinner Lily Potter was revising her lesson plan for her seventh years who were getting ready for NEWTs. Green eyes rose to look at the doorway as the woman straightened in her chair noticing how her back ached.

She doesn’t expect to see her son there. He’s not cheerful as he usually is when he comes in. His eyes while not downcast avoid her face and without being invited in he closes the door after himself and sits in the chair in front of her desk.

Lily puts down her quill and smiles at her son. “Hello, what brought my son all the way to the dungeons this afternoon?” She asks taking in Harry’s sitting stance. He was a bit rigid, sat by the end of the chair and didn’t look happy to be speaking with her at all, to be truthful she was a bit worried about what he wanted to tell her.

Harry exhaled loudly, looked her into eyes and quickly said. “Mum, why are you suddenly so unfair towards me in classes?”

The red headed woman blinked in surprise a couple of times, happy smile falling from her face. Unfair? Her? She was proud of never giving into house rivalries or believing rumours, she always treated everyone equally, even her own son.

“What do you mean unfair? I’ve always been treating everyone like equals, never had favourites.”

Harry shakes his head. “No, I mean that you’ve been very strict with me ever since September, you ask me questions not from our year text books and I’m the only one who gets them. When we brew you spend more time by my cauldron critiquing me than you do to anyone else and even when I get a potion in a shade the book says it should be you say it’s subpar.”

Lily tilts her head; when Harry says it like that it does sound like she’s singling him out, but that’s not her intention. “Oh darling, I’m sorry if it seems I’m being mean to you, but I only want to show you have a lot to work on and-“

“Mum,” Lily was interrupted and she closed her mouth as she stared into determined green eyes, “even Draco thinks you’re being unfair. Today he stopped me after class and suggested we don’t count potions grade in the total of our standings, because it would be unfair. Draco told me that, mum, potions is his best subject, the only one where he’s better than Hermione!”

The mother stared at her son and blinked confused; was she truly being a bad professor to her own son?

“Mum.” The red head looked up at the teenager in front of her, “why did you suddenly start to treat me differently? In first and second year you treated me like anyone else.”

Lily puts a hand on her chin and taps lips in thought, now that she thinks about it after hearing that Harry chose Alchemy as his elective subject and a group was formed so he was able to attend it she had decided he needed more work. Alchemy and Potions had a lot of similarities and people tended to be good at either both or neither.

“Harry, tell me why did you chose Alchemy as your elective?” Lily asks making Harry look up from his hands that were resting in his lap.

The boy blinks confused, obviously not sure what Alchemy has to do with anything. “My soulmate convinced me I would like some parts of the subject and that when I finished school I could help them in areas they’re not good at. It also went well with how I chose Care of Magical Creatures which they also didn’t take. I saw the point they made that we both should be knowledgeable in different areas.”

Lily’s eyes narrow. “There’s more to this than that, tell me all of it.”

Harry sighs and pushes his hand through his messy black locks, he grimaces and leans down into the chair. “It’s gonna sound silly to you, but it’s because of this theory my soulmate has. They believe that wizards are actually aliens from another planet, a race of travellers that go from planet to planet and live in it until it’s time is over or living conditions become unfavourable.” Lily raises a surprised eyebrow, but Harry continues not paying her any attention.

“That’s how wizards also ended up on Earth, my soulmate says we have been living here for some millennia, but because of how the natives – muggles – have been lately our race will need to raise its metaphorical wings once again and find another planet. My soulmate believes that the generation to do this is ours. That is why as his soulmate I have to help them convince others of this and find out how our ancestors travelled planets. To do that we will need to travel around ancient ruins and find information.” Harry rolls his eyes as he finishes his explanation. “Or at least this is how my soulmate is trying to convince me of traveling the world with them once I finish Hogwarts.”

“And are you going to do it? Be an adventurer with your soulmate?” Lily asks; the theory sounds completely out there if she was being honest, but its foundations were basically finding undiscovered ruins. The theory also had a lot of holes in it, but she wasn’t about to poke through all of them.

Harry shrugs at her question. “I don’t know yet, they suggested I take Alchemy and this was the second part of their conviction why I should take it. After looking into subject I decided it was interesting and took it. But the way you put it now I realise maybe my soulmate just watched too much of Indiana Jones movies.” Lily chuckles. “But what does this have to do with you suddenly being unfair?”

The green eyed woman sighs, amusement leaving her expression. “When I went to Hogwarts I also tried to take Alchemy, there was a group in sixth year taking it at the time, but our year did not form a group. Nonetheless I did some self-study on the subject and I know it’s really hard. I thought that by pointing out things that potions and alchemy have in common I will help you out.”

Harry nods. “Will you stop now? It really isn’t helping me.”

The Potions professor nods. “Now tell me what other ideas has your soulmate shared with you? Anything else as interesting as ‘wizards are aliens’ theory?”

The third year jumps up from his seat. “Not going to talk about it, you really don’t want to know.” He says as he opens up the door. “See you at dinner, bye.”

And he’s out of her office, doors closing behind his back, cutting of the echo from his footsteps.

Lily smiles and shakes her head; boys are so mysterious in their teenage years.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry looks at his empty left wrist, then looks around, taps his foot and then looks at his wrist again, the routine starts again and again and again, but suddenly there’s someone standing right next to the sixteen year old and he hadn’t even noticed them approaching.

The green eyed boy turns his head to look at the stranger and his breath catches as he’s met with a smiling face of a handsome stranger. Sharp nose, smooth facial features, slim eyebrows and dark eyes. The man tilts his head, extends his hand. “My name is Tom Riddle.”

Harry knows his blushing, he can’t help it, his soulmate is really handsome, even if his body was hidden under a robe Harry could still see he was very fit. Harry on the other hand wore a combination of snug black jeans and blue shirt underneath an indigo coloured sweater, it was meant to show off his lean frame and now he felt a little embarrassed over dressing to show off like this when he knew his soulmate was older and more mature.

“Harry Potter.” Harry says, shaking his soulmate’s hand.

Tom doesn’t let his hand go once the handshake is done but rolls down Harry’s sleeve. There in bright black letters a message form his soulmate is written. _‘Nice to meet you Harry Potter, I’ve been waiting for this moment quite a while.’_

Harry takes Tom’s right hand, rolls down the sleeve to see the same message written there, he looks up into the deep stare of brown eyes. “How long did you know who I am?”

“I was sure since the end of your first year.”

Green eyes widen with sudden realization. “Tom Riddle, you’re Draco’s older brother’s best friend, of course you knew who I am.” He furrows his brows. “And it probably was obvious from when I said I’m playing quidditch for Gryfifndor in second year, no second year entered the team that year besides the new seeker.”

The older male nods. “Yes, Abraxas is quite a doting brother and shares his brother’s woes with me and don’t worry, darling, that wasn’t the only thing that made your identity obvious.”

Harry blushes in shame for being obvious, the two of them had decided to keep their identities a secret and Harry had obviously failed at this little game. Harry doesn’t resist when Tom’s hand find its place on his waist, gently leading him away from their agreed waiting spot by Gringotts. “That didn’t really make me feel any better.”

“Ah, but making you feel better wasn’t my intention.” Harry glances up at the handsome male’s face and Tom turns his head to him and smiles. Harry swears to Merlin his heart jumped a beat at the sight and then tried to leave his chest when a hand brushed through his cheek. “You look adorable when blushing.”

They continue walking and Harry exhales quietly, relaxing once those piercing eyes weren’t on him. “Yea, that seems fair, I knew you were a weirdo, it turns out you’re a handsome weirdo, but I don’t mind.”

Tom chuckles as they pass the wall from Diagon Alley and Leaky Couldron. “This is why I waited for you.” Tom says once again stopping in his tracks and turning to Harry, taking the teen’s right hand while not taking his other from the teen’s waist. “You just make me happy like no one else ever managed.”

Tom kisses Harry’s hand and the green eyed male kind of wants to kiss that handsome face, but stops himself, he’d probably faint from overheating if he did that. He didn’t want Tom to see his collapsed form with tomato red cheeks, he wasn’t that comfortable with the man yet.

Besides, he has a year before he turns seventeen and can officially enter a relationship with his soulmate, Tom is twenty three after all.

“Are you hungry?”

Harry is startled from his thoughts and looks at the other man. “Ugh, yea, I didn’t eat lunch before coming.”

“Good,” Tom nods, “I can tell you about a place in Australia I found in some scrolls dating back three thousand years, I wanted to tell you about it yesterday, but because of our pending meeting didn’t want to ruin the anticipation mood.”

The green eyed male rolled his eyes and finally gathered enough courage to put his hand around Tom’s waist like Tom had around his. “I would have preferred you gushing about a non-confirmed place than laying awake and staring at the ceiling while all kinds of insecurities tried to invade my head.”

“Ah,” Harry sees a smirk on his soulmate’s lips. “But then you used occlumency I taught you and they went away, right?”

“Yea, yea, I did that, but I’d have rather spoken with you.” Harry blushes a bit at the admission, but tried to contain the blood flow upwards, this wasn’t something he hasn’t said before, even if in the past it was always written down.

Suddenly Harry is enveloped in a hug, Tom’s hair is right in front of his nose, their bodies pressed together. “Ah Harry, you’re just so precious.” The older man says as he releases the teen from the impromptu hug.

“While I don’t know what brought on that I don’t mind if you hug me again.” Harry says scratching his cheek with confusion.

Tom only smiled and his arm once again finds a place on Harry’s waist.


	2. Life after 'The End'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How does life go once you meet your soulmate? Pretty decent, if you ask Harry Potter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a request with some suggestions on what could be added to this story and I took them on, this came out way later than I ever intended and I'm sorry about my laziness, but I finally finished it and hope everyone will enjoy it. ^-^   
> Warning: it's super fluffy

The place they choose for lunch is quite simple, they sit in front of each other at a two seat table near a window, a floating orb of light just above their heads. A waitress led them there and then floated them their menus.  

Harry takes his and immediately as he opens it peeks through the top and sees that Tom hasn’t even opened his and is just openly staring at him. “What?” He asks, eyebrow raised, feeling a bit defensive.

The older male grins. “Nothing,” his eyes are still trained on Harry but his hands open the menu , “I just want to look at you as much as possible, to have a clear image of you in my head.”

Harry looks down, he can’t really bare the intense stare of the light blue irises as they bore into his face without feeling fidgety. “Well, shouldn’t the great occlumency master be able to recall the memory of me even from a slight glance?”

A snort, Harry can’t help but look up, he sees Tom grinning and simply puts down the menu down, it wasn’t working as pretence to hide if Tom wasn’t even going to pretend to choose a meal. “Of course I can, but the real deal is much better, don’t you agree? I’m sure you already have a folder in your brain dedicated purely to the images of me.”

While that was completely true the teen didn’t let it push him out of the track. “You say it like you already have one.”

The taller male shrugs nonchalantly. “Of course, I need something to look at when I will be feeling lonely.”

This time Harry can’t keep the blush away from his cheeks. “That sounds terribly perverted, I really hope you didn’t mean it like that, because I might rethink our relationship in that case.”

Realization falls onto Tom’s face and Harry’s stomach unclenches, yea, sure he’s interested in Tom romantically, but jumping right into that kind of relationship sounded like a lot of trouble. “I think your mind is going down the wrong road there Harry, although I’m also at fault for making such implications in first place. My mind was more in the place of a lonely Sunday morning when there won’t be any Hogsmead weekend for us to meet at I will remember you and your lovely face with a cup of tea in my hand.”

“Or maybe you should just write me if you’re feeling lonely.” Harry teases. “I know that with old age it can get to you…”

Amusement trickles out of his soulmate’s face and Harry knows he went a bit too far. Tom’s smile looks a bit strained as he speaks and Harry gets even bigger realization – he had never thought of what the seven year gap did for Tom, he had always felt grateful for the chance given, for Tom waiting for him, but never thought how terribly lonely it must have been the first years. When Tom had graduated and Harry was still only getting into opening up and writing daily to his soulmate.

“If it bothers you, I don’t mind waiting more,  I-“

“Oh gods,” Harry interrupts, “I didn’t mean it like that!” Tom closes his mouth and stares at his young companion. The earlier amusement is out of the window and Harry hates being the reason for it, but it would have probably came up eventually, but he hated that it had to be at their first meeting.

“I only meant to tease you! I don’t care that you’re much older, that doesn’t change anything since long time ago! I still want to try to have a-“ Harry blushes, he hates saying it, he only ever thought about having romantic relationship with Tom, but never voiced it out loud. “-a romantic relationship, I thought I was clear about it.”

Green eyes stare into light blue trying to convey their meaning.

Tom’s lips form a small smile. “Yea, but some things just bother you sometimes, and for me it’s that you have problems with the age gap, ours quite big.”

Harry rolls eyes. “Don’t be like this, being the same age and nationality with your soulmate is quite rare, my parents were lucky. So I never had any unrealistic expectations and I’ve known you’re seven years older than me for five years now.” He pins Tom with a deadpan stare. “It’s me who should have these doubts, I’m a child compared to you.”

The older male stays silent for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. “I think we both should agree to leave this topic alone, neither of us is actually bothered, are we? And we should just keep that in mind for any future doubts.”

The younger male nods in agreement, suddenly a young woman is standing next to them, a smile on her face. “Have you, gentleman, picked your orders?”

Harry glances at Tom who’s politely smiling at the waitress and nods in agreement quickly spilling out their order. Once the woman is away he looks at his younger companion apologetically. “I hope you don’t mind I ordered for both of us, I know you gave up on look at food without picking anything out.”

“Oh, no, I’m fine, I’m not picky, so I’m sure whatever you picked will be fine with me, I always feel very awkward when the waitress comes and I still don’t know what I will eat.”

The two men chuckle.

Later on the day, the two black haired males stand in front of Flourish & Blotts in a middle of an argument.

“This is the biggest bookshop in Wizarding Britain what do you find wrong with it?” Tom raises an eyebrow.

“Well, I’m not really looking to buy books, unlike someone who more than once bragged about collecting a huge library. I just want to browse through some older books on Alchemy.” Harry fixes Tom with a no-nonsense stare. “But I know someone will just insist on buying a bunch of stuff.”

“And that is why,” Harry continues, “I don’t really want to go there, I feel like I will lose you to the books and it will be goodbye to our date.”

“I’m not that bad!” Tom complains.

The younger male rolls his eyes. “I know, I’m teasing you, but I know you enjoy books and I was thinking of visiting the library not the bookstore when I said I needed to browse some books.”

“Oh,” Tom nods. “Alright, we can do that instead, it’s been a while since I visited the library in Diagon.”

Harry grinned ta his soulmate, took his hand dragged him off away from the massive bookshop and further away into a side alley that housed the not as popular and less known establishments.

“Have I mentioned that I love your looks today?” The blue eyed man says, a smirk on his lips.

Harry says nothing so the man continues. “I can’t help, but think you’ve dressed up to impress me and it makes me happy you thought of me as someone you want to impress without even knowing who I was.”

“Tom, stop trying to embarrass me!” The younger whines as they enter old, but well-kept building with dark green doors.

“Ah, but thoughts like these make me feel good about myself, would you rather talk about my latest research?”

“Yes,” Harry nods, “you just said you’re looking into something, but never said into what.”

The pair is walking among the tall shelves of the library, a privacy charm hanging around them. That was a good thing about public libraries, they had privacy charms that settled on people if they were talking so not to bother other guests.

“Well, I had been looking into goblins recently, they are much more long lived than wizards and some of their documents should have much more information than ours.”

“So you’ve been collaborating with goblins then?”

The taller man looks at his younger companion with disbelief. “Of course not, I’ve been trying to find where their archives would be in their secret underground city. It’s hard work as I suspect their city actually lies underneath all of London and the part our documents describe is just a fluke to fool wizards.”

Harry rolls his eyes. “What reasons would goblins have to hide their city? And hide just part of it? The goblin wars have thinned out their population and they always had a hard time conceiving. I doubt they have enough number to populate a city of the size of London, besides they have magic even if it’s different, they can enhance spaces, why would they need such big area?”

A small area with comfy couches appears before the two as they turn a corner and without a hesitation the pair falls into the comfortable seats, eyes locked as they continue their discussion.

“Well, I don’t know everything, I just need their archives, I know I could convince them to show me their public ones but the older ones are never going to be shown to me, so I need to know where they are if I want to blackmail them.”

Harry shakes his head. “Be happy I didn’t follow my dad’s steps to become an Auror or I would hate to arrest you in the future. Now I can just help you to avoid them.” He says, a fond smile on his face, Tom talked about barely legal things and slightly illegal things way too often, his dad will either love him or hate him…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Harry, when are we going to meet your soulmate?”

A spoon drops from Harry’s hands and he looks up at his mother, mouth still open from when he was taking a bite. “We’ve only had a couple of meetings, so definitely not any time soon.”

“Huh?” James puts the tableware from his hand down with a confused frown. “Why not?”

The teen glares at his father. “Because you’re going to be overprotective and nosy and we’re still figuring things out.”

Lily grins. “What things? I thought you decided you wanted to have a romantic relationship on your first meeting?”

“But we haven’t started it yet, we’re just meeting up and getting used to each other and getting to know each other better.”

“Honey,” Lily chuckles, “that’s basically the first stages of dating.”

“Well, we’re not calling it that yet, so it’s not.”

James taps the table with his pointer finger and then points it up. “Then how about we invite him and his parents over? That way we get to know both your soulmate and our future relatives.”

Harry feels his face go red at the implications his dad made, his mind couldn’t help but think of a future where he and Tom live together – married… and the flutter in his stomach just made him even more embarrassed. “No, no way, that’s even more too early, I haven’t even met them, I’m not letting you meet them before or with me either, so have patience.”

“But Harry-“ James starts but his son interrupts him.

“I’m going back to school in a couple of weeks and then I will only meet him once a month until the vacation period so at best we will organize a meeting for you in the winter.”

James’ shoulder sag and Lily shakes her head. “If you truly want it to be like that, then we will respect your wish.”

“Hmm,” Harry looks at his father who seems to be thinking about something with a grin. “So your soulmate is a he, you’ve told us he’s older, but how much older?” The Potter Lord looks at his wife. “Do you think I’ve met him at the ministry?”

The red headed woman shakes her head. “From what I remember he’s not a ministry worker but someone who seeks knowledge and does research, but I don’t remember in which area, but I remember clearly Harry took Alchemy because his soulmate couldn’t, so that’s definitely not it.”

“Oh my gods, don’t try to figure out who he is by things you know! You haven’t met him and you will not meet because for one – he knows who you are and I told him to avoid you until the formal introduction and for second – I’m not telling you his occupation or full name any time soon!”

“Awww, Harry, why you have to be a spoil-sort? We will try to figure him out anyway.” James shrugs a smalls mile on his lips.

Teen’s eyes widen. “Don’t you dare to follow me when I go on my dates!”

“Aha! So you do think of your meetings as dates!” James shouts a shit eating grin on his face.

Harry’s cheeks once again go red. “If you dare to follow me I am going to move to Sirius’ and Severus’ home, I know uncle Sev won’t let Sirius follow me.”

Lily smacks her husband upside the head and smiles at her son. “Don’t worry, your dad will not do any of the things he’s implied he would, there’s no need for you to threaten to move out prematurely.” Her voice is calm, but for Harry it’s pretty clear she’s taking him seriously. Good to know she believes in his threats.

“But you’re also interested in how this soulmate looks and who he is.” James whines, best puppy dog look on his face.

Unfortunately such expression did not work on his wife. “James, be reasonable, this soulmate isn’t going anywhere we will meet him sooner or later and we’re both aware he’s good for Harry through the years they’ve been speaking to one another and how happy Harry looks after each of their meetings.”

James slumps in his chair dejectedly and once again takes the once forgotten spoon to get back to his dinner. “Fine, fine.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Tom’s eyes once again glance at the floo see no signs of anyone going through and once again find his soulmate’s green orbs. “I know I let the whole introduction thing up to you, but are you sure this is fine?” He asks the younger male.

It winter vacation, a week until Christmas to be exact and it’s finally time for Lily and James to meet Tom because if all goes to plan a week later will have the Riddle and Potter family meeting each other for the first time over a Christmas dinner.

Harry’s answer begins with a shrug. “This is the best I could think of. If you went to our place they could try to intimidate you, I bet you not all or at least a few of my uncles would be there too because they ‘accidentally’ were over and decided to stay for dinner or something like that.”

Tom reaches for Harry’s hand and takes it into his. “But I wanted to see the place you grew up in, see all the baby pictures of you, see how your room looks.”

The younger male quickly turned his head from the floo to his soulmate. “I’m sure you weren’t implying anything with it but I can guarantee one hundred percent that would have never been allowed – us alone in my room I mean.” Harry grins and leans up to place a kiss on Tom’s cheek. “Here they don’t have so much power, besides it will be good for them to see how you live, maybe they will understand you better.”

The fireplace whooshes green flames and the Potter couple step out of the flames. Both were dressed in evening dress robes, they were clearly trying to dress to impress, but were also attempting not to be very obvious about it; Tom thought as he watched Harry’s mother smile at her son and then turn her gaze onto him.

In a matter of seconds she recognized him from his Hogwarts days and her eye widened at the recognition, she glanced at her son then back at him and her lips formed an ‘o’. Meanwhile the Potter lord  took a quick look around the room, nodded at his son and took to analysing every inch of Tom’s body, it was, dare he say it – creepy.

No one said anything for at least a minute until Harry sighed clearly fed up with the awkwardness. “Tom, these are my parents – Lily and James Potter, mom, dad, this is my soulmate – Tom Riddle, he’s currently doing research on ancient ruins while also working his way to get mastery in runes and a couple of other, less known ancient languages.”

James eyes narrowed in suspicion while Lily nodded in understanding clearly remembering how studious he was.

“Now, let’s get out of this room, we’re not going to stand here all day are we?” Harry motions his parents to go first moving himself and his soulmate aside from the doorway to let them pass also somehow ending up with Tom’s hand around his waist.

The couple follows the Potters into the living room where the older pair immediately start exploring the room, going around the large stacks of books that didn’t fit into the three bookshelves stationed along two of the walls. The other noticeable feature of the room was the dining table set up for the meal, four dark wood chairs around it, matching the rest of the wooden panelling around the room.

Two large arch windows brought most of the light into the room, but because of the winter daylight cycle the afternoon was already darkish, so two magic powered chandeliers were already on, bathing the room in whitish light.

Tom motioned his guests to the table, inviting them for the meal. He set up the seats so he and Harry would sit in front of the Potters in a united front, he saw no reason to seat himself at the head of the table, this wasn’t an intimidation dinner and he didn’t want to make it seem that way.

The Potter couple sat down and watched as Tom poured them all a glass of vine before sitting down himself, Harry also got a glass and was surprised when his parents said nothing about it. The teen shrugged it off and continued observing his parents expressions. Meanwhile his soulmate sat down and tried to think of safe conversation topic.

But it was James who spoke first and broke the awkward silence. “So what do you do in you free time?”

Tom raised an eyebrow. “My life is my work, I don’t have set hours when I do my research and when I don’t. But if you mean what I do to relax then I usually talk to Harry, when I want to talk to someone it’s either him or my friends. I also sometimes participate in Wizarding chess tournaments. I’m really not sure what I should specify as doing in my free time as I don’t particularly feel as I need to have some.”

James frowns. “I meant ‘what do you do when you leave your schedule open so if your friends invite you to a pub you would be able to come’.”

“Ah,” Tom smirks. “I don’t really enjoy pubs, or drinking many of the alcoholic beverages, but because of me free work schedule whenever my friends invite me over I can go whenever I please.”

Lily interrupts before her husband can throw another question out. “Is anyone looking over your research as you’re gathering everything for mastery or are you under somebody’s apprenticeship?”

“I update the guild every three months on how my work goes and send my notes to them, but besides that I’m doing everything on my own.” Tom answers with a shrug.

The red headed woman’s eyes widen. “Oh my, there’s a lot you have to do on your own then.”

The young adult once again moves his shoulders up and down, not bothered by the intense staring from James. “It’s fine, I’m doing fine on my own, I never really needed anyone to guide me through my studies.”

The woman chuckles. “Oh, I remember that all too well, you got us at Hogwarts a headache as we tried to figure out if you need any help in anything or any sort of guidance.”

Harry’s eyes widen. “I didn’t realize my mom already taught at Hogwarts when you went there! Mom, do you have some interesting stories about Tom, please tell me you remember something!”

“Um,” Lily tilts her head lost in her memories. “I’m not really sure there are any such memories, Tom was always a calm child, didn’t really get in trouble as far as I know, was made Prefect in fifth year, Head Boy in seventh, never got lower than EE, and even those were rare, all his end of the year exams were always O, I’m pretty sure he finished Hogwarts with the most O’s as all of his exams were O and he took ten of them.”

Harry glances at his soulmate with surprise. “You never told me you were that smart.”

“I thought it was obvious I was smart?”

“Yes, of course, but there’s smart and there’s smartest person to finish Hogwarts in a pretty long time smart.”

“Does it really matter? There are a lot of smart people who could have done that, but simply didn’t bother because they saw no point.” Tom grins. “You know I like to show off, this was one those things.”

“I see,” Harry smirks. “So you didn’t want to give me more teasing material?”

The taller male rolled his eyes. “I would be stupid to give you this information willingly.”

“Awww, but I want to know everything about you, you know, you shouldn’t hide things from me.” Harry blinks at his soulmate innocently, but a grin is playing on his lips.

A short artificial cough interrupts their banter and the couple turns at their guests. James is clearly annoyed while Lily seems to be quite amused. “Can you stop flirting in front of us, I really don’t need to know how your private relationship develops.” Says James while rolling his eyes.

Lily chuckles quietly as the two young men blush and straighten in their seats from which they were starting to lean into one another as they talked. Now that she knew who exactly was her son’s soulmate is she felt much calmer with the knowledge that her son chose a career path to accompany them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When Harry gets off the Hogwarts train for the last time there’s a pair of arms and a passionate kiss waiting for him. He grins into it happy to see Tom for the first time in three months. Getting ready for exams was a bitch and Tom finally getting a breakthrough also didn’t help so they got through only by writing to one another.

But now Harry was officially out of school, almost a year as he’s been of age and had an open future to do whatever he wished with it.

“Oh my god Harry, this is your soulmate?!”

Harry grins as he turns around to Ron and Hermione, one arm around Tom’s waist. “Hmm, yea, sorry for not having a chance to introduce you to each other earlier.” He says sheepishly.

“Well,” Hermione starts, “Maybe if you haven’t disappeared last summer with barely any interaction with us maybe we wouldn’t have waited almost two years to see your lover.”

“Ups, I already said I was sorry about it and I already told you my parents didn’t agree with me moving in with Tom immediately after I got of age, so I either spent time with him, them or you two and could rarely get two of the three interact.”

The annoyed expression falls from Hermione’s face and Ron starts laughing from his poker face he had been wearing during the whole interaction. “We know mate, we’re not salty about it, we’re just teasing.” The red head extends his hand to the silent taller man. “I’m Ron, it’s nice to finally meet you.”

Tom shakes Harry’s best friend’s hand nodding his head. “Likewise,” he does the same with Hermione, but doesn’t say anything else.

Before an awkward silence can set in Hermione is speaking again. “Now, just don’t elope with your soulmate right after you get your NEWT results Harry, we will need to celebrate those.” She’s grinning from ear to ear as she says those words, clearly enjoying how Harry’s cheeks redden, they both know where she got this idea. James had written more than one letter with his fears of such scenario happening.

To be truthful his fears weren’t completely unfounded as Tom might have hinted considering such scenario in their future. The thing James couldn’t get through his head was that it was said only to tease him.

“Don’t worry,” Tom starts, his hand once again finding it’s place around Harry’s waist as he pulls his soulmate closer to himself and pecks the younger male’s cheek. “we will be sure to invite you to the wedding.”

Harry feels his whole face get red as blood rushes up, he hides himself behind his hands and whines. “Tom, stop teasing me!”

The taller male chuckles and Harry’s friends join him. Harry would sneer at them, but he doubts his beet red face would express his exact feelings properly.

“Potter, Riddle!”

Harry turns his head sideways and feels the red slowly seep out of his cheeks as he sees Draco Malfoy approach their small group. “Draco, when will you get out of the habit with the last name calling?”

“Sorry Harry, almost six years did their thing,” The blond smiles and shakes Tom’s hand, he doesn’t say anything to Hermione but Harry doesn’t miss the glance he exchanges with Ron. The two thought them being soulmates was a secret, but basically everyone knew about their secret late night rendezvous that been happening during the last year. It was funny knowing how the two of them couldn’t accept each other as soulmate for almost their whole Hogwarts experience and Harry had more than once seen insults written in less seen places on each of their bodies.

Out of the three of the Hermione was still the only one who haven’t met her soulmate, she was still figuring out what language they wrote her in, she didn’t want to write them back until she could figure it. It was a huge difference knowing that she came to Hogwarts with no understand or intensions to seek her other possible side out.

“So what brings you here? We will be meeting soon, right?”

Draco pulls his eyes away from the ginger where his gaze might have stayed for longer than he intended. “Exactly, I wanted to remind you of the book you promised me. Don’t forget it or I’m not letting you into the manor.” He finishes huffily. “See you later.” He adds waving at the four of them and then hurrying away.

Harry watches him hurry away with a knowing smile, the last phrase was totally only meant for Ron who was totally watching the younger Malfoy heir run off with a dopey smile on his face. The two of them were definitely not fooling anyone.

“I see my parents guys, so I will get going now.” Hermione says with a smile on her face getting everyone else out of their musings.

The girl walks away and everyone waves her with a bye, Ron also leaves soon after and it’s just the two raven heads once again. The pair also turns to leave the train station when Tom leans down to whisper in Harry’s ear as they try to get through mass of muggles. “What book?”

Harry grins as he remembers. “I got him interested in muggle fantasy literature and now I have to bring him a sequel of a book he read, it gets released next week, a day before we’re visiting the manor.”

“Oh you heathen, ruining proper purebloods.” Tom laughs as the two finally get away from the station’s crowd into an empty side street from which they were going to apparate.

“Imagine what we will be able to do together.” Harry says, a smile on his lips.

The feeling of apparition goes through his body and he suddenly finds himself standing in Tom’s bedroom, the older man’s eyes shining with promise of a proper ‘welcome back’.

Harry smirks at his soulmate and without being pushed falls down into the black sheets, he raises his hands up and as soon as Tom is close enough pulls the man don into a kiss. It’s been way too long since they’ve seen each other.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

_Two years later_

Harry leans down in the beach chair stationed in the lone sunny spot that comes through tree foliage of the dense jungle. The young man sighs and tries not to think of his stupid impulsive soulmate and the mess he had just created.

“Haaaaaaarry-“ Comes a whine from the nearby tent as a tall man gets out of it, typical muggle explorer clothes hugging his well-toned body that Harry just promised not to touch for a month if Tom didn’t clean up the mess he made inside the temple they discovered just yesterday.

“You can’t refuse to work with me alongside the sex ban!”

“Yea I can,” the younger male says putting on a pair of sunglasses to increase his aloof look and make the adorable face of his lover less clear, it was doing it’s magic on him with making him want to forgive his stupid lover. “I don’t know how you managed to basically grow a whole forest inside that previously magically protected temple. Whose protection, might I add you also destroyed.”

“But darling,” Tom’s voice is just by Harry’s ear as his hand wrap around Harry shoulders. “To open a secret passage we need a sacrifice, I know we’re not about to sacrifice anyone so I will replace the sacrifice with life energy from those plants, they will be gone in half a day.”

“Well then I have a free half a day, hurray me.” Harry answers, not reacting to the wandering hand that was going down his bare chest clearly aiming for the waistband of his khaki pants.

“ **We** have a free half a day, I already set up the ritual needed to absorb the life energy, it doesn’t need any supervision so we can enjoy our free time together.” Tom whispers right by Harry’s ear as his hand finally reaches its destination and now is slowly creeping under the light brown material.

Harry wants to pretend to be mad for a bit more, especially because such plans were not shared with him before he saw how terrible the temple that had been perfectly clean a day before had become, but he’s been horny for a couple of days now and the proposition that Tom was making was way too appealing to turn down now when they could relax for a bit. So instead of answering he turns his head and engages his soulmate’s lips in a kiss.

Tom smiles into it, his free hand reaching up to take off Harry sunglasses. “Don’t be so smug,” Harry whispers interrupting their kiss. “Next time share plans like these beforehand and there will be no need to sweet talk me.”

The older man shrugs unapologetically. “I will think about it.”

“Why do I have the feeling you enjoy seeing me angry?” The shorter male asks, letting himself be picked up from his chair and into Tom’s arms.

“Maybe because you look absolutely adorable when you pout and then we can have sex without a clear reason?”

Tom’s mouth is on Harry’s neck and he’s not able to answer the statement, but if was able to, he would have probably said something among the lines of ‘that doesn’t seem fair to me’.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Here's some facts that didn't make it into the fic:
> 
> \- Tom’s parents are the same people, but in a different time, they genuinely fell in love. As only wizards have soulmates, it’s part of their magic, if markings never appear on a wizard's skin their soulmate is either dead or a muggle, Tom’s mum never had any markings, fell in love with a muggle, started believing that he’s her soulmate, somehow managed to make him like her;  
> \- Because his muggle father is rich Tom doesn’t lack money, of course his fortune is nowhere equal to Malfoy’s but it’s enough for Tom not to get a job, but do individual research/study so he can delve deeper into rune/ancient language learning and role.  
> \- Harry is friends with Hermione and for the first time meets a person who almost doesn’t write on her skin because she’s shy/scared/reluctant to believe in the idea of soulmates, in muggle world soulmates doesn’t exist, so she’s having a lot of doubts;  
> \- Harry’s parents are soulmates, he’s an only child, his grandparents are alive, so is his grand uncle and his wife who don’t have children, Sirius is still Harry’s godfather, even if he never ran away from home, his soulmate is Severus Snape, Sirius never became hateful of Slytherins, he helped Severus run away from his dad and talked his mum into letting his soulmate stay at Grimmauld;  
> \- Severus never became a potions professor because he hates children and barely tolerates Harry and Draco;


End file.
